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Children During Wartime: The Fight to Survive

How many times have we seen videos or photos of children in times of war or conflict?We often see the manner in which these children were physically affected by the brutal wartactics or the poverty that pervades their home, but the photo and videos do not show thepsychological effects that encompasses a childs life because of the war and conflict prevalent intheir home. When children are in areas that are ridden with conflict and that are not stableenough to support these children, then the children are exploited and they fall into a cycle ofconflict. In the media, we have been exposed to the Syrian conflict and how the amount ofrefugees fleeing the conflict has drastically increased throughout the years, especially the amountof children fleeing the conflict. We have been exposed to the Central American conflict due tothe amount of children entering the United States unaccompanied. We do know that the amountof children affected in Syria is enormous, and the war and state-sanctioned terrorism has causedmany of these children to become displaced and psychologically traumatized. In CentralAmerica, the rise of gang violence and poverty pervades the region. This has affected manychildren in the region, and in turn, has caused them to be psychologically traumatized. Now thequestion that permeates the world is what impact does this leave on a childs wellbeing? Yes,there are physical aspects that affect these children, but there is also a substantial amount ofpsychological ways a child responds to conflict and war in their home.

Sorto Andino2According to a United Nations report, about ten thousand children have been killed andthree million have become displaced as a result of the Syrian conflict. This is a sad reality formany children not only in Syria but in other parts of the world as well. In Syria, many childrenare abused by the government and the opposition as well. The government places children indetention centers, and according to the same U.N. report, children are tortured by being beat withmetal cables, electric shocks, being denied the right to sleep, and being sexually assaulted. Theopposition or rebel forces have recruited children to fight in the war and have also kidnappedchildren in exchange for a ransom. It is important to note this fact because many children whoface these situations are vulnerable to being traumatized. When we were children, we had thecomfort of living in a safe environment, without the fear of our home being destroyed by bombsor the fear of being kidnapped and taken away from your family. Many of these children have toendure these situations and one of the responses that arises is psychological trauma.In Central America, there is a substantial amount of gang violence and poverty thataffects children negatively. According to the American Immigration Council, El Salvador,Honduras and Guatemala are the three countries in Central America that are plagued with asubstantial amount of violence. In 2011, Hondurass homicide rate increased to 91.6 murders per100,000 people, and it has been formally recognized as the homicide capital of the world.Children are not excluded from the mass murders, especially those that arise from gang violence.Children are also negatively affected by their inability to be well-nourished. According to theWorld Food Programme, about 49.8% of children in Guatemala are not receiving the correctamount of nutrients or enough food to survive. This is linked to the poverty level and is alsoprevalent in other Central American countries such as Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.Gang violence is the central factor for the rising amount of child victims. According to a report

Sorto Andino3by Human Rights Watch, 400 children under the age of eighteen were killed at the beginning of2014 in Honduras, and most homicides stemmed from gangs. Children are not safe from theconflict that has arisen in this part of the world, nor in Syria. Children are attacked by gangmembers in Central America, but they also witness family members being killed through violentmeans. This traumatizes a childs brain and without the ability to cope with the traumaticsituation, they are forced to cope with the event on their own. Many of these children do notreceive proper medical/psychological assistance. And even when they do arrive to a new placethat will provide them with refuge, the amount of suffering that the children have had to endureis substantial enough that limits their ability to fully recover from their experiences. Like statedabove, many of these children are also malnourished, and this is true in both Central America andSyria. Malnourishment is a physical aspect to what conflict and war can do to a child, but it canalso be directed to a psychological standpoint. If a child, especially a child that is developing andgrowing and who needs that nutritional support to develop fully, is not receiving the support itneeds nourishment wise, then it hinders their ability to be psychologically stable.The effects that are caused by the various situations children are put in in these twoconflict zones of the world are substantial. They range from being physical, emotional, or itcreates an entire journey a journey that encompasses a child entering a new country seekingrefuge. An effect that plagues many children in Syria and Central America is Post TraumaticStress Disorder or PTSD. Children in times of conflict are exposed to warfare, murder, and theforms of torture children have to endure in these parts of the world can all lead to PTSD. In astudy done in the Islahiye camp reported by the Migration Policy Institute, 45 percent of childrefugees displayed signs of PTSD. Children respond in different ways usually because they arenot old enough to fully understand what is occurring in their home country. A report from the

Sorto Andino4World Vision International examined that one of the physical consequences of warfare or conflictthat leads to a psychological response is the impairment of a childs brain development. Conflictsuch as war or gang violence can lead to a childs inability to fully develop their learning andsocial abilities as well as the ability to cope with stress and varying emotions. Children are proneto changes in their behavior because of their exposure to violence. The Biomed Central spokeabout the symptoms Central American children had to endure, such as bedwetting, nightmares,and aggressiveness, which was due to psychological trauma.According to the Association of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, there are short termand long term psychological responses to conflict and war. The short term responses that wereanalyzed demonstrated that anxiety, sleep problems, loss of appetite were common amongchildren. The long term effects that are similar to those of adults included impairment ofdevelopmental skills, flashbacks of traumatic events, and anxiety. An important observation thatarose from NPRs article called Aid Workers: Syrian Refugees Unable to Help Their KidsCope was the manner in which children were taught how to cope. In the observation, you candecipher that these children are undergoing PTSD. When children were asked to draw as a formof therapy, they would draw the reality of their experiences, such as children being killed,bombs, and visuals of war. As these children try to cope with the different situations they wereput in, they have to undergo a substantial amount of aid to better their mental health. Theproblem with this is that many of these children are placed in areas that may not have a lot offunding or aid workers to help them cope with their new environment and the situation they hadto endure.According to the Migration Policy Institute, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) isone of the most common things that arises after war, especially among children who have had to

Sorto Andino5endure the war. Depression and PTSD become even more apparent as time goes on because therefugee children do not have an adult figure to help them cope with the situation. Since thesechildren are entering countries that do not have enough funding, they are not able to receive thefull education and psychological help that is needed for them to fully cope with the situationsthey were put in. The report from the Migration Policy Institute ties in education to the mentalhealth of refugee children. As refugee children are isolated from educational resources, theirchances of feeling marginalized increases. If these children do not feel that they have a place in aplace they are seeking refuge, they are vulnerable to psychological ailments. Child refugees inrefugee camps are usually not allocated the resources needed to help them undergo a smoothertransition into their new lives. A Stressful Life Events Questionnaire was used to observe thesechildren and it listed traumatic experiences that could have happened to these children and itevaluated how these children were coping with the trauma. Many of these children that camefrom war stricken countries like Syria or Central America were more likely to have depression orPTSD.A childs learning abilities, ability to socially interact, and their ability to controlemotions can be drastically affected by conflict. Once again, this has an effect on a childpsychologically because if they cannot interact with others, then their psychological well-beingis altered. The World Vision International stated that the structure of the brain is a physicalcomponent, but it is also important to examine this because it relates back to the psychologicalmanner in which children respond. As these children undergo very difficult, strenuous situationsin their native countries and once they reach that point when they are trying to forget whatoccurred to them, they are altering their daily activities. Their brain anatomy is being altered dueto the conflict they had to endure, according to World Vision International. The brain is a

Sorto Andino6mechanism that is used to respond to the various situations one is presented with, and thesechildren are often altering their structure of their brain by their constant anxiety and depression.Without proper care, they are even more vulnerable of being impacted psychologically.Children around the world are being affected negatively by war and conflict. Children inSyria and Central America, who are both undergoing similar yet different situations arevulnerable to the traumatizing events. As these children experience horrific events and witnesspeople being killed and witness how people take advantage of them, they are more vulnerable topsychological ailments. As these children partake on a journey to a new place, a place where theycan be safe, they are even more vulnerable to being traumatized. They are not given the properresources to cope with their surroundings, and many times, they are marginalized. These childrendeserve a place to feel safe and secure so they can fully transform their lives for the better.